No, Canada Did Not Recriminalize Drugs in British Columbia

Jeffrey A. Singer

Casual readers might misinterpret reports of yesterday’s decision by the federal Canadian government to make it illegal to consume illicit drugs in public spaces in British Columbia to mean that the federal government has just squelched the province’s three‐​year drug decriminalization. That is not the case.

In 2023, lawmakers in Ottawa exempted British Columbia from federal drug prohibition laws, permitting the province to begin a three‐​year pilot program...